Dr Maria Tomlinson
BA; MA (King's College, London); PhD (Reading)
Department of Journalism Studies
Leverhulme Early Career Fellow
+44 114 222 2512
Full contact details
Department of Journalism Studies
204
9 Mappin Street
Sheffield
S1 4DT
- Profile
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Maria began her Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship in November 2019. Her project is entitled 'Menstruation and the Media: Reducing Stigma and Tackling Period Poverty'. The project examines how menstruation has been represented in both the traditional media and on social media since 2015. She is analysing newspapers, magazines, podcasts and social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter. Regarding the impact of the increasing visibility of menstruation, the research focuses on teenagers in Yorkshire which is an area where period poverty is particularly pronounced. She is also interviewing community leaders, teachers and activists.
Before starting her Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship, Maria worked as a Research Associate on Dr Emma Heywood's FemmepowermentAfrique project. Maria completed her PhD in French studies in 2018. Maria’s PhD was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (SWWDTP consortium). Her PhD examined representations of menstruation, childbirth and the menopause in contemporary women’s writing from Algeria, France and Mauritius. During her PhD, she founded and edited the interdisciplinary magazine Gendered Voices. The magazine aims to engage the public in cutting-edge academic research. While at the University of Reading, Maria also founded the Gender and Sexuality Research Network. Maria organised the conference Imagining the Body in France and the Francophone World which took place at the University of Birmingham in January 2018.
- Research interests
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Maria’s main research interests are gender, postcolonial studies, feminism, the female body, LGBTQI+ identity and activism. Her Leverhulme project brings together all of these research areas. The project seeks to interview a diverse group of school pupils from a variety of different ethnicities, religions, and socio-economic backgrounds. Maria is also researching activism from within the LGBTQI+ community which highlights that not all menstruators are cisgender women. She is continuing her work within the field of French studies by examining how period poverty and menstrual stigma in France have been discussed on social media.
- Publications
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Books
- Introduction.
- From Menstruation to the Menopause: The Female Fertility Cycle in Contemporary Women's Writing in French. Liverpool University Press.
Journal articles
- Moody and monstrous menstruators: the Semiotics of the menstrual meme on social media. Social Semiotics, 31(3), 421-439.
- Introduction. L'Esprit Créateur, 60(2), 1-12.
- The contribution of citizen views to understanding women’s empowerment as a process of change : the case of Niger. Feminist Media Studies. View this article in WRRO
- "On dirait que c'est honteux de devenir une femme": Narratives of a Girl's First Menses in Maïssa Bey's Bleu blanc vert and Leïla Marouane's La jeune fille et la mère. L'Esprit Créateur, 58(2), 112-125.
- "...It must stop, it must stop”: The Silent Child of Sexual Abuse in Shenaz Patel's Sensitive'. Ad Alta: the Birmigham Journal of Literature, 7, 38-45.
- "It must stop, it must stop..." The Silent Child of Sexual Abuse in Shenaz Patel's "Sensitive". The Birmingham Journal of Literature and Language, 7, 38-38.
Chapters
- Conclusion, Queer(y)ing Bodily Norms in Francophone Culture (pp. 263-265).
- Subverting Patriarchal norms (?): The Pleasures of Menopausal Women in Michèle Sarde’s Constance et la cinquantaine In Allison M, Evans E & Tarr C (Ed.), Women’s Pleasures and Their Discontents in French Literature and Culture (pp. 139-152). Peter Lang
Other
- Challenging Normative Spaces and Gazes: The Body in 20th and 21st Century Francophone Culture: A Special Issue of L'Esprit Créateur.
- Introduction.
- Teaching activities
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Maria is committed to decolonising and queering the curriculum. She gives lectures which focus on gender, sexuality and feminism in the media for various modules. She is module leader and teacher for JNL31001 Gender, Feminism and the Media and has taught on the following modules:
- JNL6027 Journalism, Globalisation and Development
- JNL6099 Radio and NGO Communication in Conflict-Affected Areas
- JNL6210 Research Methods
- JNL6302 Political Communication in Times of War, Crisis and Terrorism
She has also supervised dissertations for the MA Global Journalism and International Public and Political Communication programmes.